Sony Planning Spider-Man Universe TV Shows Within Next Decade

Sony Planning Spider-Man Universe TV Shows Within Next Decade

13 Mar, 2019

Sony is developing multiple Spider-Man related properties for the future, including TV shows. While Disney and Marvel Studios are about to own most of Marvel Comics' characters once the Fox acquisition closes next week, Sony continues to hold on to everything Spider-Man related and find new successful films. Spider-Man: Homecoming proved to be a major hit as a reboot of Peter Parker (this time in the MCU) in 2017, while last year saw Sony have one of the biggest surprise hits at the box office in Venom. To top off this success, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hit theaters in December and blew critics and audiences away.

The combination of Sony's three different Spider-Man universes has given them even more faith in their ability to create new franchises. They'll attempt to replicate the success of Venom through Morbius, led by Jared Leto as the living vampire, but there's also previously been talks of expanding the Spider-Verse franchise. One recent report pointed to Sony considering TV spinoffs for some of the film's biggest breakout stars, such as Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, or Spider-Ham.

During an interview with Variety, Sony Pictures Television chairman Mike Hopkins revealed that TV shows for some of their Spidey-related Marvel characters are indeed in the plans. Hopkins couldn't detail what characters will star or if they're live-action or animated, but he did confirm that his division has their own specifically designated characters they can create shows around. He also stated they are "pretty far down the road" in determining which characters will star in a series of their own. Furthermore, he teased that one exciting project may not be too far away from debuting either.

We’re developing a lot of Marvel-related content, and I think we’ll be out in the market very soon with something really, really big and transformational for us, because we’ve not done any shows with Marvel before, with Marvel IP. So that’s a big piece of development that we’re onto.

As Sony looks to expand its reach on television, using Spider-Man and other Marvel characters as a selling point is not a bad place to start. It isn't immediately clear what sort of announcement Hopkins is teasing here, but he may have tipped his hand to Sony's larger plans. Later on in the interview, he appears to confirm that the upcoming lineup of mystery shows will all be connected to one another. He said:

I think we aspire to have several shows in a universe that we create that can pollinate between each other, and to working with a partner to make that happen.

If this is the case, then Sony could be adding a fourth shared universe of Spider-Man content to their library, but the first on the small screen. This could effectively give Sony their version of a superhero shared universe on the small screen like The CW's Arrowverse, Netflix's The Defenders, or Hulu's The Offenders. What's not clear at this point (if this is the plan after all) is whether or not these shows would be connected to Sony's movies in anyway.

These mystery plans that Hopkins is teasing for future Spider-Man content on the small screen are just that for the time being though. The one hold up could be finding where this content will land. Hopkins noted that they're looking for a partner to make this happen, but if they're shopping Spider-Man content around on the small screen, it's difficult to imagine there being a shortage of buyers. If they do intend to have something available soon though, then hopefully an announcement is not too far away.